Qanon

Was a green screen used to produce one of the more memorable images of rioters inside the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021 -- with actors posing in another location and superimposed onto still and video images of the riot? No, that's not true: An image circulating online is a photoshopped prank composed of two different images after-the-fact. The…

Is humanity being held hostage by a new world order pushing COVID-19 vaccines? No, that's not true: The video in this Facebook post recycles previously debunked claims about COVID and plays into the rhetoric of an elaborate QAnon story of a cabal of blood-drinking elites working for global dominion. The claims appear in a post (archived here) on November 16,…

Has the "Emergency Broadcast System" been activated? No, that's not true: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confirmed to Lead Stories that the Emergency Alert System (EAS) has not been activated. If it had been, the protocol would be that the president of the United States would address the nation within 10 minutes of a national emergency. This has not…

Is Jacob Rothschild worth "$500 trillion" and does he own "every central bank in the world"? No, that's not true: A satirical meme posted about the wealthy Rothschild exaggerates his estimated $5 billion wealth and erroneously claims that he owns every central bank in the world. There is no evidence he has financed both sides of every war since Napoleon…

Did President Joe Biden resign and was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi detained? No, that's not true: The claims in this video and headline are not based in reality. This content is a mashup of material from various sources with a shocking headline intended to trick people into viewing the video. Lead Stories has previously noted this pattern of production in…

Did the U.S. Army Delta Force raid a storage facility on October 18, 2021? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that such a raid occurred and the claim was published on a known fake news website. The claim appeared as an article (archived here) published by Real Raw News on October 21, 2021, titled "Delta Force Raids Adrenochrome…

Were "50,000 secret USA troops" just deputized by Donald Trump? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that any service members have been deputized by former President Donald Trump and made "Federal Marshals." A parody Twitter account made the original claim and used non-related social media posts to make the false connection. Trump is no longer the commander in…

Does a 52-page pdf entitled, "The Vaccine Death Report" show how dangerous and deadly COVID-19 vaccines are? No, that's not true: This document contains an international cast of claims that have already been debunked. The vaccine disinformation in this collection carries with it a secondary level of baseless conspiratorial beliefs underpinning most of the talking points that are summarized at…

Does the headline on this post correctly summarize the contents? No, that's not true: This video is another example of a clickbait tactic of a spam network that deceptively captures the attention of an American audience with hot-topic headlines that bear little relation to the content of the underlying video. The video is typically a well-produced package lifted from mainstream…

Does this photo accurately portray the appearance of Canadian Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam? No, that's not true: This photo, which originally appeared in the Toronto Star on April 23, 2020, has been digitally altered in several ways to change how she looks. Other public health officials, such as Dr. Barbara Ferrer, public health director of Los Angeles…